To The Reader’s Forum:

There was a cartoon in the paper a few years ago that showed two coaches watching little leaguers out for their first day of practice. One coach says, “it looks like we have a great group of kids this year.” And the other coach says, “yeah, but there’s only one problem, I checked, they all have parents.”

Parents are the overseers; sometimes that’s a good thing, and sometimes not so much. It’s fair to make the claim that some can be just a bit on the eccentric side from time to time. Parents should keep a watchful eye over those with whom they entrust with their children. High school administrators didn’t just decide out of the blue one day to take bullying seriously; they were dragged along kicking and screaming by those pesky parents. Of course this creates the mindset that most parents are busybodies and are to blame for everything that happens at a school. If a member of staff decides to step down from his post a merry group of misfits will often surface with plans of getting to the bottom of something, they just don’t know what yet. The search is on to find those responsible and bring them to justice. Fifth-hand knowledge is more than enough evidence for those desperate to be played the fool, those who can’t function in the morning until they’ve had their first cup of coffee and told their electronic device just how outraged they are about something they know nothing about. In their defense, they don’t want to know anything.

Parents can be easy targets, and are often pitted against each other by those who feel that it’s up to them just who gets the “troublemaker” label. No one wants that, not if you care what the neighbors think. Once you give yourself the title of “the good parent,” you’re free to attack other parents and their children. Make sure you cover your tracks on the low road by offering the false narrative that those you’re attacking complained about “playing time.” As soon as you recharge your device warn them that they’re going to get exactly what’s coming to them.

So what do they have coming to them? What have they done? If you don’t know, and are only going by what you heard from someone, who heard it from someone, who heard it from another, maybe they haven’t done anything.

Dan Nelson

Bemus Point